47a — Written Evidence Produced at Time of Expense Updated for tax year 2025

What this line means

A yes-or-no question asking whether your written evidence (from line 46) was produced at or near the time you incurred the vehicle expense. The IRS gives more weight to records created contemporaneously — as each trip happens — than to logs reconstructed weeks or months later. This question helps the IRS assess the reliability of your mileage records.

Does this apply to you?

• You answered “yes” on line 46 (you have written evidence)
• You keep a mileage log, use a tracking app, or maintain trip records
• You need to confirm the timing of when your records were created

Easy to overlook

Contemporaneous means at or near the time of the trip Recording your mileage the same day or within a few days of each trip meets the standard. Waiting until the end of the month to log trips from memory is weaker but may still be acceptable. Waiting until tax time to reconstruct an entire year of mileage from your calendar does not qualify as contemporaneous. ¹ [SOURCE: IRS Publication 463 — Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses]

Mileage tracking apps satisfy this requirement automatically Apps like MileIQ, Everlance, or Stride record trips in real time using GPS. They automatically create a contemporaneous log with date, route, and miles. If you use one of these apps, you can confidently answer “yes” to both line 46 and line 47a. ² [SOURCE: IRS Schedule C instructions — Part IV, Line 47a]

Watch out for this

Answering “yes” when your mileage log was created at year-end. Many sole proprietors sit down in January and try to reconstruct their business miles for the prior year using calendar entries and memory. While these records are better than nothing, they were not produced at the time of the expense, and answering “yes” misrepresents when the records were created.

Related lines on your return

• Line 46 — Schedule C — Whether you have written evidence at all
• Line 44a — Schedule C — Business miles; the mileage your evidence documents
• Line 9 — Schedule C — Car and truck expenses; the deduction this evidence supports